“The Tonight Show” With Conan O'Brien Kicks Off with Yamaha Digital Consoles at Front of House and Monitors

BURBANK, Calif.âŽ¯When Conan O'Brien took over the “Tonight Show” (NBC) on June 1, it was the first time in nearly 40 years that the show received a new home. Crews worked for months to prepare the new digs at Universal Studios, the same Hollywood soundstage built in the 1950s and occupied by “The Jack Benny Show.”

Jeff Peterson of Green Audio was contracted by ATK AudioTek (Valencia, California) to handle the design and act as project manager for Conan's “Tonight Show” sound system, and as part of the massive undertaking, chose two Yamaha PM1D digital audio consoles and an M7CL for the theater.

“Between NBC and ATK, we decided to use Yamaha PM1D consoles for both the front of house and monitor positions based on their flexibility, familiarity and reliability,” states Peterson. “While the front of house PM1D has 192 available inputs, we still needed to add a Yamaha M7CL as a sidecar for additional channels.”

In addition to the 192-input PM1D at the monitor position, the monitor set up includes a two-tiered 16-channel Aviom Personal Mixing System to drive in-ear monitors for drummer Max Weinberg and his band, eight channels of Sennheiser EW350 wireless in-ears, and four channels of Shure PSM700 in-ears, available to accommodate guest bands. The wireless in-ears and Aviom inputs are fed analog from the PM1D monitor console.

“The PA system is driven one hundred percent AES/EBU from the Yamaha PM1D through two BSS Sounbdweb London Blu-800's, then AES directly into the amplifiers,” says Peterson. “Care was taken to keep everything synchronized and to keep latency to a minimum.”

The wireless compliment is a 12-channel Sennheiser 3732 receiver with 5212 belt packs and 5200 handheld transmitters using VT500 lavs for the belt packs and 12 channels of Shure UHFR receivers with handhelds using SM58 and KSM9 heads, with VT500 lavs on belt packs.

Three custom ATK 4-way Universal 56PR splitters distributing microphone and production hi-level signals to all consoles were also installed. ATK permanently installed 168 inputs from the stage to the FOH position as part of the splitter system.

For more information on Yamaha PM1D and M7CL digital consoles, visit www.yamahaca.com.

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About Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc.:

Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. (YCAS) provides a full line of integrated professional audio products offering complete systems solutions for the broadcast, sound reinforcement/installed sound, touring, commercial recording, and post production markets. With the recent purchase of NEXO loudspeakers by Yamaha Corporation Japan, the company remains the official U.S. and Canadian distributor for all NEXO models. YCAS offers comprehensive in-house and field product training for its customers, a dedicated dealer network, and 24/7 technical support.